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A day after Vijay Mallya claimed that he had a meeting with Arun Jaitley, Congress president Rahul Gandhi accused the finance minister of “colluding” with the fugitive liquor baron. "This is a clear-cut case of collusion. There is some deal between them. Finance Minister Jaitley must resign and this should be investigated," he said.

TIMESOFINDIA.COM | Updated: Sep 13, 2018, 17:01 IST

Highlights

The Congress chief also suggested that Mallya was allowed to escape to London by changing the 'arrest notice' to 'inform notice'

Yesterday, fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya had stirred a controversy claiming he had met finance minister Arun Jaitley before fleeing to London

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Rahul Gandhi attacks Arun Jait...

NEW DELHI: A day after Vijay
Mallya claimed that he met Arun Jaitley
+ before absconding to London, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused the finance minister of "colluding" with the fugitive liquor baron and demanded that he (Jaitley) should tender his resignation.

BJP has alleged that UPA had given a "sweet deal" to Kingfisher Airlines to keep it afloat and suggested that the airline was perhaps owned by Gandhi family. BJP leader Sambit Patra showed a purported confessional statement of a hawala trader, who has alleged that Rahul had links with a shell co.

"Vijay Mallya said yesterday that he met Arun Jaitley ji in the Parliament before leaving. Arun Jaitley writes blogs on all meetings but I don't know why there was no blog by him on this meeting. He (FM) said that he spoke only a few words to him (Vijay Mallya), which is a lie," Rahul said while addressing a press conference in the capital.

Finance minister Jaitley rubbished Vijay Mallya's claim of having met him before fleeing to London, saying he never gave him an appointment after becoming a minister in 2014 but the fugitive liquor baron misused his position as an MP to accost him once in Parliament.

"This is a clear-cut case of collusion. There is some deal between them. Finance Minister Jaitley must resign and this should be investigated," he said.

The Congress chief also suggested that Mallya was allowed to escape to London by changing the 'arrest notice' to 'inform notice'.

"Mr Jaitley is lying, the government is lying. Finance Minister talks to an absconder. The absconder tells him that he going to London. Finance Minister doesn't tell CBI, ED or police. Why? The arrest notice was changed to informed notice. This can be done only by the one who controls CBI," he alleged.

Rahul also dismissed suggestions that it could have been a 'chance encounter'.

“Even if he (Mallya) caught up with you in the corridor why did you not tell the CBI, ED that he's going to flee, catch him? This is clearly a collusion, there is definitely a deal. Finance Minister should clearly say what transpired and he should resign," he reasoned.

"Rahul Gandhi must answer, what relation did the Gandhi family have with Mallya, Kingfisher Airlines," Patra said.

Yesterday, fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya had stirred a controversy claiming he had met finance minister Arun Jaitley before fleeing to London, only to backtrack a few hours later saying no formal meeting took place and that he “happened” to meet the minister in Parliament.

Mallya’s “clarification” tallied with Jaitley’s statement that he had not granted the tycoon any formal appointment since 2014 and that the former liquor baron “misused” access as an MP to accost him in a corridor in Parliament to claim he had made an offer of settlement for outstanding loans.

Following the report, the Congress leader, in a tweet, had asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to order an independent probe into the matter.

Given Vijay Mallya’s extremely serious allegations in London today, the PM should immediately order an independent… https://t.co/rYS7JHDnK3

Attacking the BJP, another Congress leader PL Punia on Wednesday said that he saw Jaitley and Mallya having a discussion in the Central Hall of Parliament. "I saw both Arun Jaitley and Vijay Mallya having a discussion in the Central Hall of Parliament. This can be can verified with CCTV footage from that day," Punia said.

Punia said on March 1, 2016, when he was in the Central Hall of Parliament, he had seen Jaitley and Mallya talking "discretely".

"On March 3, we heard from the media that he (Mallya) fled the country on March 2. I have clearly stated about this in each of my interview with the media. There are CCTV cameras, we can all see that for proof. If I am wrong, I will resign from politics," Punia said.

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